Fadnavis On Idealism In Politics: If You're Kicked Out, Who Cares

Maharashtra on Monday (3 July) witnessed a political tectonic shift with opposition Nationalist Congress Party's leader Ajit Pawar joining the Shiv Sena-BJP coalition government as the Deputy Chief Minister along with other prominent NCP leaders.

A day after the surprising political development, a statement by Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has come into light, that indicate what was the BJP's thought process while going into an alliance with the Ajit Pawar led faction of the NCP.

In an interview with The Indian Express on 28 June, Fadnavis had stated that while everything may be fair in love and war, it is not always the case in politics.

He further said that ethical politics and idealism are good but nobody cares about them if one doesn't hold onto power.

"We want to do ethical politics but I can’t promise that I do ethical politics 100 per cent. We have to compromise sometimes. I do too. Idealism is good, but if you’re kicked out, who cares?," Fadnavis was quoted as saying by IE.

On breaking up with erstwhile Uddhav Thackeray led Shiv Sena and forging an alliance with NCP's Ajit Pawar earlier in 2019, the Maharashtra Deputy CM said, "We had to make certain decisions. If Uddhavji hadn’t behaved badly, our alliance would have continued. People chose us. If after that, he behaved like this… I’m not a saint, I’m a politician who is ethical. So once I went with Ajit Pawar and then I went with Shindeji".

"With Shindeji, I think it is very natural," he said.

However, Fadnavis also made it clear that BJP cannot go with ideologies of parties like Congress, All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM), and Muslim League.

"As far as politics is concerned, we cannot go with ideologies of Congress, AIMIM , Muslim League, not even as a compromise," he said.

On being asked if Maharashtra people's sympathies lie with Uddhav Thackeray, Fadnavis said, "How has he been wronged? If anyone has been wronged, it’s me. His loyal base might be sympathetic towards him for sometime but that’s fading slowly too. Why should he get sympathy? He did not meet his workers or MLAs, he was inaccessible. In our politics, weak politicians do get sympathy but not for long".

On Opposition's attempt to come together in the Patna meeting and it altering the caste combination in the state, Fadnavis said that it was not very different from what they did in 2019.

"Caste is more in the minds of politicians than it is in the minds of people. I was elected five times. If people only thought of caste, they wouldn’t have chosen me. I won’t deny that caste has a role to play in politics but those who do the arithmetic are inaccurate. The BJP has a committed vote share in every caste today," he said.

On Karnataka election defeat, the Maharashtra Deputy CM said that party did not only fought there on Hindutva.

"Who says we fought only on Hindutva? It’s our commitment, not our core plank. The country is historically secular. The essence of Hindutva is tolerance. We’ve seen continuous civilisations because we’ve been tolerant. When people talk about appeasement, we respond. Then people accuse us of talking about Hindutva," Fadnavis said.